Reality Fracture has hit MTG finance fast and hard, causing all kinds of cards to spike in price. Sphinx and Planeswalker support were the two most popular categories, but they aren’t the only cards rising in price. Agatha of the Vile Cauldron is also spiking in price thanks to a new infinite combo with an interesting Reality Fracture Commander.
MTG Agatha of the Vile Cauldron
Agatha of the Vile Cauldron
Agatha of the Vile Cauldron
Activated abilities of creatures you control cost {X} less to activate, where X is Agatha's power. This effect can't reduce the mana in that cost to less than one mana.
{4}{R}{G}: Other creatures you control get +1/+1 and gain trample and haste until end of turn.
‘s appeal comes from her first ability, which reduces the cost of activated abilities of creatures by an amount equal to her power. While she can never make these abilities free, Agatha is already a part of a fair few existing infinite combos, all of which can win the game easily.
If you get Agatha’s power to Seven, for example, you can easily go infinite with
Silvanus’s Invoker
Silvanus’s Invoker
Conjure Elemental — {8}: Untap target land you control. It becomes an 8/8 Elemental creature with trample and haste until end of turn. It's still a land.
, turning all of your lands into 8/8s. If you have something that can make a land tap for two mana, like
Utopia Sprawl
Utopia Sprawl
Enchant Forest
As this Aura enters, choose a color.
Whenever enchanted Forest is tapped for mana, its controller adds an additional one mana of the chosen color.
for example, this combo also generates infinite mana. With infinite mana, you can activate Agatha’s second ability infinitely, making all your lands infinitely big with Haste and Trample.
While most of Agatha’s infinites include Silvanus’s Invoker, they’re far from the only combos the card has.
Gilder Bairn
Gilder Bairn
{2}{G/U}, {Q}: Double the number of each kind of counter on target permanent. ({Q} is the untap symbol.)
and something that lets creatures tap for mana, like
Elven Chorus
Elven Chorus
You may look at the top card of your library any time.
You may cast creature spells from the top of your library.
Creatures you control have "{T}: Add one mana of any color."
, for example, creates infinite Proliferation. Agatha even goes infinite with some new cards from Reality Fracture, with
Aerid Konstrari
Aerid Konstrari
Flying
When Aerid Konstrari enters or dies, create a Heartwood token. (It's a red and green artifact with "{T}: Add {R} or {G}.")
{6}: Create a Heartwood token. Then Aerid Konstrari gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the number of artifacts you control.
being the most powerful.
As long as you can get Agatha’s power to 5, she creates a two-card infinite combo with Aerid, allowing the Sphinx to gain infinite power and create infinite Heartwood Tokens. With 5 power, Agatha will reduce Aerid’s ability to 1 mana, which can be paid repeatedly by the Heartwood Tokens the ability makes. If you have a token doubler in play, like
Doubling Season
Doubling Season
If an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead.
If an effect would put one or more counters on a permanent you control, it puts twice that many of those counters on that permanent instead.
, this combo even creates infinite green and red mana.
Given how powerful this combo is, it’s no shock that Agatha of the Vile Cauldron is seeing play in over 1,800 Aerid Konstrari decks, according to EDHREC. You do need to buff Agatha’s power for this to work properly, but with green in Aerid’s colors, you have access to tons of +1/+1 counter support. Interestingly, this combo is even leading to some Standard brews using Agatha.
Notably, Agatha of the Vile Cauldron also creates infinite combos with
Kiora of Fire and Ashes
Kiora of Fire and Ashes
When Kiora enters, create a 5/5 red Dragon creature token with flying.
{8}: Create a 5/5 red Dragon creature token with flying.
, another new reality Fracture card. This time, if you have Agatha, Kiora, and
Ganax, Astral Hunter
Ganax, Astral Hunter
Flying
Whenever Ganax or another Dragon you control enters, create a Treasure token. (It's an artifact with "{T}, Sacrifice this token: Add one mana of any color.")
Choose a Background (You can have a Background as a second commander.)
in play, you can create infinite Dragon tokens, so long as Agatha’s power is 7 or more. Frankly, though, since Kiora isn’t a very impressive Commander card and you have the extra hurdle of raising Agatha’s power, this combo isn’t very exciting.
The Spike
Although Aerid Konstrari was revealed during the Reality Fracture spoiler season kickoff on September 8th, it took time for Agatha of the Vile Cauldron to gain interest. Demand increased temporarily between September 9th-17th, but it took until October for Agatha to see a truly notable demand spike. Since the beginning of October, 90 near-mint copies of Agatha have exchanged hands.
While plenty of supply remains, with 55 near-mint listings available on TCGplayer, demand has still driven a price spike for the card. Currently, the cheapest near-mint copy of Agatha on TCGplayer is $6, more than double its $2.14 market average from a month ago. Notably, copies of Agatha are already selling for over $6.50, more than tripling the card’s price.
Unfortunately, if you’re looking to grab Agatha on the cheap, you’re out of luck. $6 is the cheapest you’ll find this card on TCGplayer, and even that can be considered a steal right now. Other variants are more expensive, too, with Extended art copies of Agatha going for over $8 non-foil and $18 foil.
A Reliable Spike?
Looking ahead, Agatha of the Vile Cauldron has some potential. Unlike Vronos yesterday, which had a massive outlier sale, demand for this card has been relatively constant over the last month, suggesting that this is an organic, player-driven spike rather than an investor-driven one.
As an activated-ability reducer, Agatha also has a lot of use in Commander, appearing in popular decks like
Kenrith, the Returned King
Kenrith, the Returned King
{R}: All creatures gain trample and haste until end of turn.
{1}{G}: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
{2}{W}: Target player gains 5 life.
{3}{U}: Target player draws a card.
{4}{B}: Put target creature card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under its owner's control.
and many niche decks like
Redshift, Rocketeer Chief
Redshift, Rocketeer Chief
Vigilance
{T}: Add X mana of any one color, where X is Redshift's power. Spend this mana only to activate abilities.
Exhaust — {10}{R}{G}: Put any number of permanent cards from your hand onto the battlefield. (Activate each exhaust ability only once.)
. Any Commander with an activated ability and a Gruul color identity could easily run this card, not to mention the infinite combos Agatha could create in the future.
While Agatha is unlikely to stay at its elevated price point forever, it wouldn’t be surprising if the card settles at a higher price than it was pre-spike. With a decent chance of synergizing with a future Commander, Agatha could spike again, too.
With all this in mind, grabbing a copy of Agatha of the Vile Cauldron for your Commander collection might be a good idea, but, as always, MTG is impossible to predict. There’s always a chance that Agatha could see a reprint, after all, or something else that’s strictly better than the Warlock could get printed.
With either of these actions likely to plummet this card’s price, anything is truly possible. With that in mind, we’ll just have to wait and see how long this combo keeps Agatha’s price up.
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